


Every Little Thing That You Do

by biibii



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Soft Boys, Soft Keith specifically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-11-02 06:21:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10938783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/biibii/pseuds/biibii
Summary: Lance is learning something new about Keith all the time. Because maybe, Lance figures, there's a softie under Keith's badass image.





	Every Little Thing That You Do

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from that Lonestar song, I'm so sorry. 
> 
> Special thanks to the one who inspired this fic, you know who you are~

When Lance would watch Keith back at the Garrison (a totally normal part of a rivalry, mind; Lance needed to keep tabs on his every move so that he could learn his tricks) he used to get pissed off at how aloof and cold Keith came off. The guy had a severe case of resting bitch face and it didn’t help that he determinedly kept to himself, never showing up to social events or acting interested in actually getting to know his fellow students.

Lance had assumed it was because Keith thought he was Too Good to associate with the common folk. What would the Best Pilot of their Generation want such base friends for, right?

Admittedly, he had been a little off.

Spending months in the depths of space on a single Castle Ship and living with only six other people forced you to get to know even your worst enemies a little better. Not that he considered Keith an enemy so much anymore. Rival, sure, but you don’t make out with enemies (unless you’re batman, which, regrettably, Lance is still not).

The coldness Lance had viewed in Keith turned out to be self-preservation. The aloofness Keith exuded, Lance learned was legitimate social awkwardness. His affinity for alone time was mainly introverted tendencies, as well as the fact that Keith was simply used to being alone.

“Even when I lived with my dad,” Keith had told him one evening, a rare occurrence of vulnerability he offered Lance as they watched the expanse of space through the glass, “I was alone a lot. He worked from five to eight at some warehouse job, so I had to learn to take care of myself at a pretty young age.” Lance doesn’t even have time to comment on how sad that is until Keith beats him to the even sadder punch, “Which, I guess turned out to be a good thing in the long run. It wasn’t a totally new concept when I got kicked out the Garrison and went to live in that shack by myself.”

Lance felt the cold stirring of empathy in his heart, but he bites his tongue for once. Keith doesn’t want pity and honestly, what can Lance really say? He’s grateful that Keith is willing to trust him with this information and he wants to keep that trust. He swallowed down the lump in his throat, leaned his head on Keith’s shoulder and twined their fingers together. “How’d you even find that shack?” He had asked, instead of all the other questions burning left unsaid on his tongue.

_Were you lonely?_

_Were you scared?_

_Did you miss having someone around?_

_Did you ever want arms around you or words to calm you or hands to hold you?_

So, yeah, Lance had misjudged Keith Kogane just a little. He’s still an ass, of course, but not as high and mighty as Lance once thought.

He had learned this while still being friends with the Red Paladin. It isn’t until after the night Lance kisses him under the moonlight of an alien planet for some diplomatic reason that wasn’t nearly as important as Keith’s soft sighs in that moment that Lance starts seeing all kinds of different sides of his self-proclaimed rival.

The first thing he came to realize is how incredibly touch starved his boyfriend is.

Despite Lance’s big personality that he knows can be a little much, he isn’t a complete tool. He knows when to back off and when to keep his distance, which is what he aimed to do the first few tentative weeks of their relationship. He’d wait for Keith to take his hand as they walked the halls and made sure Keith was aware when he’d go in for a hug or a kiss.

A week into dating and they’re hanging out in Keith’s room, Keith cross legged on his bed and seeming to be lost in thought as Lance diligently knits from the desk chair, assuming Keith was content to just have his presence nearby. He’d make the occasional comment, but for once Lance was enjoying the quiet, only humming half the time as he worked. Which is why he nearly jumps when Keith emits this sigh of frustration, snapping off the bed and approaching Lance with deliberate steps. He’s scared at first, admittedly (what? His boyfriend is kind of intense sometimes), but keeps still as Keith stands before him. He’s about to ask what Keith wants when he ducks under the knitting supplies to be in Lance’s arms, slinking up like an actual cat onto his lap.

“You were sitting too far away,” Keith mumbled into his neck, making himself comfy on Lance’s person.

And Lance made sure to not make the same mistake again.

After that, Keith spent a lot of time in Lance’s lap (much to the chagrin of his teammates) and Lance was sure to shower his boyfriend in gentle affections as much as he could. Hand on his cheek, brushing through his hair, hugs from behind and kisses pressed against his neck. All that good stuff that Keith soaked up like a _sponge_. Lance couldn’t believe it honestly; he felt so lucky, as he’s always been a particularly touchy and clingy boyfriend.

Lance starts to notice a lot more about Keith after that and his first impression of Keith starts to blur into another reality because how could he have ever thought of Keith as _cold_?

They’re on an alien planet, one of the most beautiful and peaceful planets they’ve been on thus far. It’s almost out of a pastel fairytale, Lance thinks, looking up at the lilac sky where the clouds curl around splendid mountains. The valley they’re standing in is no less breath taking. The grass is a lush green, soft to the touch, and flowers of all sorts speckle the hillside they’ve landed on.

Allura and Shiro are making plans as to what is to be negotiated with the planet’s monarchy while the rest of the paladins hang back, enjoying the scenery.

“That grass is so green, I’m almost convinced it’s candy,” Hunk is saying, eyes sparkling in delight as he speaks. “Like in Willy Wonka, you know?”

“Just promise me you won’t test that theory,” Pidge says jokingly, nudging Hunk’s ribs.

“Nah, but wouldn’t that be really cool?”

“For your sake, buddy,” Lance says dropping to sit cross legged in the grass and soak in that melty orange sunlight (it’s been a while since he’s felt the warmth of a real sun), “I hope we land on a Candy Land planet for you.”

Hunk is going on about the possibilities of such a haven when Lance notices Keith’s lack of input. He turns his head to find a shocking sight.

Keith Kogane, _the_ Keith Kogane, resident badass with the fingerless gloves and tendency to jump off cliffs at breakneck speeds and threatens to kill bum kings, is _smelling the flowers_.

Lance pays careful attention to this scene, blinking hard to be sure he isn’t imagining things, and soaking in all the details so he is sure to never forget such a precious sight of Keith kneeling in a patch of wild flowers. He doesn’t pick them, just bows over, leaning his nose into the petals and taking a deep breath, eyes closing from the no doubt heavenly aroma and looking so peaceful and _sweet._

He knows he’s staring (probably gawking, actually) but he still startles when Keith’s eyes meet his after he’s straightened his back. Keith gives him a small smile, as if he finds nothing amiss about him sniffing flowers.

With shaky knees, Lance stands only so that he can go to sit next to Keith, the distance between them inexplicably unbearable all of a sudden.

“You uh, you like flowers?” He finds himself asking, curling his legs under himself as he sits.

Keith gives him a bemused look. “As much as the next guy,” he says with a one shouldered shrug. “You?”

Lance nods, but it’s more of a noncommittal gesture. “Hey, would you be mad if I tried something?”

The query earns a raised brow. “What is that something?”

“What? You don’t trust me?”

Keith opens his mouth to reply when Lance decides to just go for it, even if it earns him a punch in the throat. Picking a pretty red flower, Lance threads the stem through Keith’s hair, tucking it behind his ear. “You know,” Lance grins, watching the flush of pink rise on Keith’s cheeks, “this actually suits you.”

“Should I be insulted?” Keith asks, but if he meant to sound sarcastic, the effect is lost with the slight breathlessness to his voice and his eyes dropping to his lap.

“No way,” Lance shakes his head and the blush deepens on his cheeks when Lance tilts his head back up for a kiss.

He’s pleasantly surprised again when Keith keeps the flower in his hair for the remainder of their trip. No one comments on it directly, but Lance catches Shiro giving Keith a Look that Keith responds to by shrugging in a ‘what can you do’ fashion.

Another instance occurs some days later, purely by happenstance. Lance is walking past the kitchen, only taking a quick glance in to assure Hunk’s lack of presence because that’s who he’s actually in search of, when he sees it.

Keith is standing from the table, empty plate of space goo in hand when his hip bumps into a chair.

“Oh, sorry,” he hears Keith mumble.

To a chair.

His boyfriend, yeah, the guy with the mullet and knife obsession, just apologized to a chair.

He’s standing there in shock for so long, Keith notices him. “Oh, hey, Lance.” He greets.

“Did you just apologize to a chair?”

Keith’s eyes widen marginally, looks sheepish for a moment before he decides he won’t allow Lance any ammunition for teasing and says, “Guess so. Just a reflex though.”

Lance scoffs at that. “Reflex my ass. You used my moisturizer as common lotion the other day, and I didn’t hear a sorry for that!”

“It’s supposed to moisturize skin, right?” Keith crosses his arms. “I used it for its intended purpose.”

Lance gesticulates wildly in the face of such blasphemy. “It’s meant for your face! Not your grimy hands that you keep covered in leather anyway!”

Predictably their argument escalates into a food fight where Keith is shooting food goo from the replicator and Lance tosses the excess back at him until Shiro enters, killing their war instantly and ordering them to clean up the mess.

At some point, they end up scrubbing the same spot, Lance’s hand bumping into Keith’s and prompting their eyes to meet, and Lance wouldn’t think Keith would be so into clichés that he’d actually lean to kiss Lance, crouching on that kitchen floor, and kissing space food from the corner of his lips. But he is.

Speaking of clichés, they say you’re supposed to get your girlfriend flowers and chocolates as gifts and, far be it from Lance to adhere to gender norms but he didn’t think that would work so well with Keith who is, as aforestated, a total badass.

Still, when Lance happens by the closest thing to chocolate he can find in a bustling alien marketplace (on one of the more urban and domesticated planets, where the skies are mostly gray from smog and the roads look akin to the cobblestone paths in those Sherlock Holmes movies) he buys a bulk of “chocolate” for Hunk and a smaller batch of what the vendor assures is meant to be “dark chili chocolate” for Keith.

He knocks on Keith’s door, mostly for the ceremony of it; neither one of them bother knocking on the other’s doors at the point. As he waits, he rocks back and forth on his heels, concealing the confection behind him.

Keith, understandably, looks confused to see Lance standing there waiting at the door. “Um, you can come in-”

“Ah, ah, ah,” Lance tuts. “I got you something.”

Keith leans against the doorway, intrigued. “You did?”

Lance brings the chocolate wrapped in paper and secured by twine around to present it to his boyfriend. “I got you chocolate,” he explains when Keith only blinks at the bundle. “Or, you know, Tellatu’s equivalent of chocolate. Dark chili chocolate, to be more specific. And don’t worry, I made sure it was milk free.” Couldn’t forget about his boyfriend’s adorable aversion to lactose (Keith would probably smack him for calling it adorable but hey, when you figure your boyfriend is invincible, it’s kind of funny to think about the fact that _milk_ affects him at all).

At this, he finally gains a reaction. “You got me chocolate?” Keith reaches out to take the gift, holding it in his hands and staring at it in awe.

“Yeah, I mean, I wasn’t like, totally sure you’d like it and to be honest, I haven’t tried it myself.” He wonders if it would have been better to get the Hunk Seal of Approval™ before just handing it off to his boyfriend, but oh well. Too late now.

“Um, thank you. I,” Keith seems to be stunned for whatever reason. It’s just chocolate after all; Lance is a little embarrassed himself to be stooping to something so basic as giving chocolate as a gift, but your options are astoundingly limited in space. In the meantime, he’s considering how exactly to catch a star so that he can give it to Keith (with a plethora of awesome pick-up lines like ‘you’re a star to me!’ that would otherwise be lame if he wouldn’t be holding an actual star in his hands at the time).

He’s surprised when Keith throws his arms around him, kissing him so suddenly and unexpectedly that their mouths don’t quite meet until Keith regroups and kisses him so soundly Lance’s vision swims and his lungs ache in the best way.

When Keith pulls back, Lance feels like swooning, like he could stay this way forever, and Keith is giving Lance such a soft smile that he wonders how he could have ever looked into those indigo eyes and seen only ice when there was so much warmth in them now. “No one has ever done that for me before,” Keith whispers, nuzzling their faces closer, pressing hushed kisses against Lance’s nose and cheeks.

Lance blinks to steady his vision, Keith’s affections and scent making him dizzy. “No one has ever gotten you chocolate?” He manages to speak.

“Nope.” Keith shakes his head.

“Not even in elementary school?”

“No.”

Lance wants to kick the ass of every kid in Keith’s primary school. What kind of bullshit was that? Keith deserved the sun and moon and those brats couldn’t deign to give him chocolate even on Valentine’s day? Before he can stew any longer, Keith is kissing him again, making his head spin and his tummy flip.

Well, Lance is just going to have to make up for all the chocolate Keith’s missed out on, he decides.

He’s learning new things about Keith all the time. How he giggles if you kiss him just under his ear, how he melts when you thread your fingers near the base of his neck, how he collects rocks from the planets they visit to help remember the names, how he nibbles on the cuticle of his thumb when he’s nervous, how he sweet talks Red when he thinks no one’s watching. So much more.

And with each new aspect Lance discovers about his boyfriend, he thinks he couldn’t possibly fall even more in love with him.

And then he does. Every time.

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to add a lot more star themed pick up lines but I'm not clever enough for it, so if anyone wants to share some, please share in the comments and make my day:)


End file.
